The present invention generally relates to methods and systems for demonstrating web sites, and, in particular, to a system and method for demonstrating dynamic web sites with integrated databases without a network connection.
The Internet has become an increasingly popular form of providing and obtaining information. The number of web sites linked to the World Wide Web is growing at an exponential rate. Some of the web sites on the Internet are dedicated to providing useful information to Internet users and derive a portion of their revenue from offering advertisement and other services through their web site. One example of web sites providing information is on-line directory services. Today, a variety of on-line directory services are available to permit users of the Internet to search for telephone numbers of a particular company or person. The utilization of these on-line directory services has become increasingly popular since they are convenient to use and are effective in locating information requested by the user.
Generally, telecommunications companies that provide on-line directory services also offer advertisement and other services through their web site. In order to market their advertising services effectively, it is desirable for their sales representatives to have the capability to demonstrate a wide range of products and services available to businesses via their web sites. Presently, sales representatives use desktop or portable computers connected to the Internet to access their web sites in order to visually illustrate how the products and services available over the web site can help attract new customers. However, in some instances, the inconvenience of connecting to the Internet or the Internet being inaccessible may prevent sales agents from demonstrating the advertisement services to potential business clients.
Thus, there is a particular need for a system that is capable of allowing a demonstration of dynamic web sites with integrated databases without the necessity of connecting to a communications network.
The present invention is directed to a method and system for allowing a user to display operations of a selected web site without connecting to a network. The present system utilizes a stand-alone computing device running a graphical user interface based web browser to allow a user to interact with hypertext documents and a database stored in a data transfer medium (e.g., disks or tapes) or a data storage device (e.g., hard drive). The hypertext documents and database, used by the stand-alone devices, may have been previously extracted from a server in connection with the selected web site via a network (e.g., the Internet). The stand-alone device may be any computing device (e.g., portable computer) employing an operating system which supports a graphical user interface based web browser.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the stand-alone device may utilize a search engine in communication with the web browser configured to search the database, in response to search instructions entered by a user, and generate a list of search results. In one embodiment, the device utilizes a web browser to receive search instructions from a user and utilizes a separate search engine adapted to search the records contained in the database according to the search instructions entered by the user. Alternatively, the device may be implemented using a web browser which has its own searching capabilities.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method of developing an off-line presentation of a selected web site is provided. The off-line presentation may be produced by extracting selected HTML documents and databases from servers associated with the selected web site. The process of extracting HTML documents from the selected web site over a network may be automated using a script. Based on the commands composed in the script, a client computer running the script engine may be configured to transmit a request for transfer of the selected HTML documents from the server computer. The script of commands may be further composed to automatically extract separately saved files that are associated with the selected HTML documents including text, forms, images, sounds, videos, and other portions.
According to a related aspect of the present invention, the directory information stored in the client computer may be populated using a database management program to download selected portions of the databases associated with the selected web site over the Internet. The downloaded directory information is stored in searchable and retrievable form. For example, the directory information may be organized in the form of database records. Alternatively, the directory information may be in a text file format. After the selected documents and data have been downloaded onto the client computer, they may be copied onto a data transfer medium (e.g., magnetic or optical disks) and loaded onto stand-alone computing devices for utilization by sales representatives to display operations of the selected web site off-line.
According to a further aspect of the invention, an off-line presentation of a selected web site is provided to allow demonstration of products and services offered over the web site without having to connect to a network. The off-line presentation may comprise a set of hypertext documents and data which collectively enable demonstration of selected features and operations of a web site. The off-line presentation may be loaded onto a computing device or copied onto a data transfer medium (e.g., magnetic or optical disks) to enable demonstration of the web site at virtually any location even when connection to a network is unavailable. Additionally, because the demonstration of the selected web site is conducted off-line, no network transitional time is incurred during the execution of the presentation.
In a related aspect of the invention, an off-line presentation of an on-line directory service is provided. The off-line presentation may be used by sales representatives of telecommunications companies to market tools offered through its on-line directory service web site, including web site development, local banner ads, information pages, additional listings, and a wide variety of other products and services. The off-line version of an on-line directory service may be developed by extracting a selected portion of hypertext documents and data from the corresponding live web site over the Internet. The hypertext documents and portion of the original databases are selected to enable demonstration of the key features of the web site without overburdening the computing device with too much data.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a directory listing telephone numbers and other information relating to business entities and individuals is provided in the form of a data transfer medium (e.g., magnetic or optical disks). In this regard, the present invention provides a cost effective way of producing and distributing directories to consumers and businesses. Moreover, the time necessary for searching through directory listings is reduced when compared with the traditional way of searching through the printed directory publications. In one embodiment, the directory is interactable using a graphical user interface based web browser and is configured in the same format as the on-line directory service so that it can be readily used by users who are already familiar with the web format. In one embodiment, the directory in the form of an optical disk (e.g., CD ROM) may be developed by extracting information directly from servers (e.g., web servers and database servers) on the Internet which contain current directory listing information related to individuals and business entities and other information such as commercial advertisements.